Allentown fire officials are advising some city residents they may be smelling an odor caused by a stolen pipes that causes a minor oil leak into a storm drain. Fire Capt. John Christopher said the smell may linger for about 30 hours as the heating oil makes its way east to the city's waste water treatment plant in the 100 block of Union Street. He said the leak was deemed harmless by state and federal environmental agencies. Christopher said the leak was caused after someone entered a vacant home on 15 t h Street and stole pipes.

Allentown fire officials are advising some city residents they may be smelling an odor caused by a stolen pipes that causes a minor oil leak into a storm drain. Fire Capt. John Christopher said the smell may linger for about 30 hours as the heating oil makes its way east to the city's waste water treatment plant in the 100 block of Union Street. He said the leak was deemed harmless by state and federal environmental agencies. Christopher said the leak was caused after someone entered a vacant home on 15 t h Street and stole pipes.

More than 300 students at Longswamp Elementary School, Mertztown, have been drinking bottled water this week as a precautionary measure after an oil leak contaminated soil near the school. Superintendent Glenn Smartschan said the school's water supply was tested following Friday's oil leak and was not contaminated. Although the water, taken from a well, presents no danger to students, Smartschan said the bottled water will be used until the "matter is cleared up." A pipeline from a storage tank for fuel oil for the school's boiler ruptured Friday, causing oil to contaminate soil and the school's parking lot. A Reading firm was hired to stop the spread of the leak and contaminated soil began being removed.

More than 100 gallons of fuel oil gushed from a ruptured basement oil tank in a North Catasauqua home Thursday night, and a haz-mat team helped clean up the spill, a fire official said. At least one person was displaced. "The house has no heat, and it has fumes," making it unwise for anyone to stay there, North Catasauqua fire Capt. Shawn McGinley said. The big leak was reported at 8:30 p.m. in the 1000 block of Fourth Street. Firefighters radioed that 147 gallons of oil had spilled from the oil tank onto an earthen basement floor.

An underground oil leak of undetermined origin threatens to delay design work, which is 50 percent complete, for the long-overdue expansion of the Lehighton sewage treatment plant. The delay could be as short as four or five months or as long as several years, borough officials were told yesterday. The oil or other substance fouled the borough's sewage plant several months ago and cost $2,900 for cleanup, said Miles Haberman, borough manager. He and borough council members said they do not want to waste all or part of the $925,000 in taxpayers money allocated for design of the expanded plant, if redesign has to be done later because of a large-scale subsurface environmental problem.

More than a month after a heating oil leak contaminated the East Branch of the Perkiomen Creek in Perkasie, borough engineers are still trying to pinpoint the source. Engineers have determined the leak is coming from the block of homes in the Chestnut and Third streets area, said Borough Manager John Cornelius. Two weeks ago, borough engineers injected a chemical agent into heating oil tanks in six homes on the block, hoping to find the leak, Cornelius said. He said they have been monitoring the leak; if they are not able to find the source, they will have to expand the search area, he said.

Carbon County commissioners by next week expect a detailed written report on a September oil leak into a Lehigh River tributary in downtown Jim Thorpe, and one commissioner said it will exonerate the county. Commissioner Wayne Nothstein said the investigation shows the oil did not come from an underground tank next to the county courthouse, but its source remains unknown. The leak, discovered Sept. 26, has stopped, he said. The report will be done by TEEM Environmental Services of Old Forge, Lackawanna County.

Mack Trucks faces a possible fine from the state Department of Environmental Resources because of a recent oil leak in the Little Lehigh Creek in Allentown. "No notices of violations have been sent, but I'm quite sure there probably will be some fine," said DER spokesman Ronn Thomas Friday. Cleanup of the oil, which came from Mack's South 10th Street plant, was completed last week. Initially, Thomas said the work was finished Friday. A spokesman for Mack said the cleanup was completed much earlier in the week and a boom to contain oil was removed from the side of the creek Thursday.

By Sarah Fulton Special to The Morning Call - Freelance | October 12, 2007

Carbon County has spent nearly $15,000 trying to find the source of and cleaning up an oil leak from downtown Jim Thorpe to a tributary of the Lehigh River, and further testing to determine the cause of the leak is planned for next week, county commissioners said Thursday. Commissioners said TEEM Environmental Services of Old Forge, Lackawanna County, the hazardous materials contractor hired to handle the mysterious leak, has hired a geologist to perform at least three test borings around an oil tank at the county courthouse to try to determine the source of the spill.

The Pennridge School District has finished cleaning up contaminated soil and water at the Deibler School, where leaking underground oil tanks were unearthed in May. The district expects to submit a report on the project to the state Department of Environmental Protection within a week, said Business Manager Denis McCall. "This report now goes to DEP, and they'll read it and maybe make recommendations," McCall said. "They could say we need to do something else, but we don't expect to have to do any more major work."

By Ashley Kosciolek Special to The Morning Call - Freelance | January 9, 2008

A summer industrial accident that spilled 6,000 gallons of heating oil on the grounds of the Panther Valley School District's new middle school apparently has had no ill effects, school officials say. More than three months after a worker preparing to lay concrete sidewalk slabs hammered a stake through a pipe feeding fuel to the middle school from an underground tank, water, air and soil quality has not been affected, Superintendent Rosemary Porembo...

Carbon County was not at fault for the September oil leak into a Lehigh River tributary in downtown Jim Thorpe, according to a long-awaited report by an environmental cleanup company. But where the oil came from remains a mystery. The report, which county commissioners got two weeks ago, says a 2,000-gallon underground tank at the county courthouse in Jim Thorpe is not likely the source of heating oil released to the Mauch Chunk Creek. Commissioner Wayne Nothstein reported the findings Thursday.

Carbon County commissioners by next week expect a detailed written report on a September oil leak into a Lehigh River tributary in downtown Jim Thorpe, and one commissioner said it will exonerate the county. Commissioner Wayne Nothstein said the investigation shows the oil did not come from an underground tank next to the county courthouse, but its source remains unknown. The leak, discovered Sept. 26, has stopped, he said. The report will be done by TEEM Environmental Services of Old Forge, Lackawanna County.

By Sarah Fulton Special to The Morning Call - Freelance | October 26, 2007

A mysterious oil leak in a Lehigh River tributary in downtown Jim Thorpe appears to have stopped, and county officials said Thursday they are beginning to believe someone may have dumped the oil down a drain or spilled it on the ground. But the source of contamination remains under investigation, Carbon County commissioners said. The leak was found in Mauch Chunk Creek, which courses beneath the borough's downtown to the Lehigh River. For several weeks the spill was suspected to be coming from the county courthouse oil tank.

By Sarah Fulton Special to The Morning Call - Freelance | October 12, 2007

Carbon County has spent nearly $15,000 trying to find the source of and cleaning up an oil leak from downtown Jim Thorpe to a tributary of the Lehigh River, and further testing to determine the cause of the leak is planned for next week, county commissioners said Thursday. Commissioners said TEEM Environmental Services of Old Forge, Lackawanna County, the hazardous materials contractor hired to handle the mysterious leak, has hired a geologist to perform at least three test borings around an oil tank at the county courthouse to try to determine the source of the spill.

A 2,000-gallon underground tank at the Carbon County Courthouse that officials suspected was leaking fuel oil into a stream that runs under Jim Thorpe and empties into the Lehigh River is probably not the source of the pollution. State Department of Environmental Protection water quality specialist Chris Burns stopped short Monday of ruling out the tank as the cause, but said tests on the tank and three lines that run from it showed no leaks. Environmental officials did air pressure tests on the tank and lines.

By Sarah Fulton Special to The Morning Call - Freelance | October 26, 2007

A mysterious oil leak in a Lehigh River tributary in downtown Jim Thorpe appears to have stopped, and county officials said Thursday they are beginning to believe someone may have dumped the oil down a drain or spilled it on the ground. But the source of contamination remains under investigation, Carbon County commissioners said. The leak was found in Mauch Chunk Creek, which courses beneath the borough's downtown to the Lehigh River. For several weeks the spill was suspected to be coming from the county courthouse oil tank.

PALMER TOWNSHIP A contractor hauling an old oil furnace from Phillipsburg to Palmer Township Wednesday afternoon unknowingly left a trail of leaked oil through Palmer Township and Wilson, Palmer police said. Police said they do not know where the leak started, but it was spotted about 1 p.m. at 25th Street and Lehigh Drive. It stretched from there to Dearborn Street, near Freemansburg Avenue, where the contractor stopped to pick up supplies, police said. No roads were closed and no accidents were reported on the slick road surface, police said.

Hazardous materials crews spent much of Monday scraping more than 1,000 gallons of diesel oil from frozen soil in the back yard of a Hilltown Township residence. The oil leaked from a 2,500-gallon green drum in the wooded back yard of a home in the 800 block of Callowhill Drive. The spill was contained to a 5,000-square-foot area, said state Department of Environmental Protection spokesman Joe Ferry. A preliminary review of the site by department staff showed only soil contamination, he said.